That Bleeding Heart
by vintagedoxy
Summary: [Sess:Kagu] He was disgusted that she served a man that could barely call himself a hanyou. She would have done anything to get her heart back, even if it meant ending up with dreams of a man with a damnable smirk.


**Title: **That Bleeding Heart  
**Author: **Rachel Elizabeth  
**Email: **ceramicprincess (at) fanfiction (dot) net  
**Status: **Five chapter saga, epilogue  
**Genre: **Romance/Drama  
**Rating: **R**  
Warning: **Spoilers. Lime content.  
**Summary: **Sesshoumaru/Kagura He was disgusted that she served a man that could barely call himself a hanyou. She would have done anything to get her heart back, even if it meant ending up with dreams of a man with a damnable smirk.  
**Proviso: **No. There. Go away now.  
**Author's Comments: **So, I know that I still have _The Guise of Apathy _to write, but this isn't going to be a very long and complicated story, I think I've just about decided. However, there is a good chance that I may change my mind, but for now, the goal is a five-chapter saga and an epilogue. So, I don't really know what triggered this story, except that I have the basic outline all written out for each chapter and the epilogue, so no, it shouldn't be very long, but I was reading Sess/Kag and realized that I still wanted to write my Sess/Kagu because.. well, we all know that they're basically a canon pairing.  
**Feedback: **Greatly appreciated, since this seems to be an under-rated couple**  
Dedication: **Once again to Melodie, because I figured this was a couple she would probably stand up and clap for. Well, that, and she always seems to be by my side right when I need her most. Live long, and prosper, my friend.

* * *

—_To kill a mockingbird_—

It was disgusting, really, the way she carried out another's biddings. Had he not known that she was the servant of Naraku, perhaps he would have helped her, but she had sealed her own fate when she became so. She had dared asked for his _help_, as though in doing so he would come to her rescue, a rescue of another youkai. If she wanted so badly to be free of him, her best course of action would have been to do it herself, that way, she wouldn't have to degrade herself by asking for help. 

He was finished thinking about that inane woman and her ridiculous bargaining token to help her away from Naraku. To think, that she had thought that she could _bargain _with him to save her miserable life when it was quite apparent that it was worth nothing to anyone. The more he thought about the obnoxious wench the angrier he became; she meant nothing to him, but he had never allowed a female so close to him as he had allowed her. She had stood barely four feet from where he had placed himself and he had not struck her down, not even moved a muscle in either of his hands. There was only one solution to this problem and that would have been the easiest solution, but he had shied away from that elucidation, had thought that he would be lenient for her absurdity because it was obvious that she had a case of long-term dementia.

There was no other explanation for the question that she had impetuously posed to him, for what did she think he was going to say? He had no use for youkai servants who prostrated themselves in front of hanyou's. It was disgustingly clear that she had enough power to take back what was rightfully hers; to think that she would ask such a favor was demeaning and insulting of his character. Instead of thanking him, however, for his indulgence in allowing her to live, she simply took off away from him and he would not forget so easily the favor, because it would not happen again. Whether she realized it or not, she was now in debt to the Lord of the Western Lands.

Kagura stormed away from where Sesshoumaru had been but minutes passed and realized that, in fact, she had gotten away quite easily from the man that made lower women cower in fear. Perhaps he was not as heartless as he liked for people to believe, because she would have thought nothing of her life if she had been killed by Sesshoumaru. Her life meant nothing to her now, leastways, because she was merely a puppet in a deranged game of ruler and concubine. It was quite obvious that though Naraku had little use for her, he kept her around to torment her soul and Kagura thought that it would have been better, perhaps, if she _had_ been murdered by Sesshoumaru. That thought, more than any other, was what had led her to ask him this favor, because whereas his half brother was strong, he did not hold a candle to the bloodlust his brother possessed.

She had begun thinking that she could maybe use that little twerp of a child he associated himself with, but then again, she didn't know his true intentions where that child was concerned. That, though tempting, seemed to be the best idea that she could come up with in the last day or so and she still wasn't sure if he would buy it enough to play into her game. The Lord of the Western Lands did not appear to encompass the type of man who would like to be controlled by such a minor detail in his life. However, the child had definite possibilities, whether Kagura liked the thought of stooping that low, or not.

Kagura realized that she was getting close to Naraku's hide out and decided that she had better sneak in so that the man wouldn't ask too many questions, though she was sure that he knew that she had been away longer than was intended. The minute she stepped inside her room she heard the creak of the door and felt the horrible presence.

"Kagura, you do not seem to realize how long you have been gone and you know that I will not tolerate such disobedience," he spoke with a quiet voice that made the bile in her throat rise. She didn't know what he was up to, but she could tell that he was incensed at her blatant disregard of authority.

"I apologize, I had not known that it was getting so late, I was, once again, checking up on the mutt to see if anything had progressed since last we looked," even as the words came out of her mouth Kagura knew that he did not believe her. However, instead of calling her on her lie, he simply stared straight through her and assessed her.

"Let's see that it doesn't happen again," Naraku practically seethed at her, his anger coming at her in waves. Instead of dropping the subject altogether and passing it off as one of her small idiosyncrasies, however, he showed her his hand and, with a cloud of smoke, her heart appeared before her eyes. Kagura tensed, she had thought that she had disrupted his evening, but she hadn't really expected him to go _this_ far to make a point.

With a small movement, Naraku closed his hand securely around her heart, anxious to watch her pain, needing to see the jolt in her eyes when she acknowledged that he would always be the one in power. Though it was a small pleasure, to be sure, he took pride in knowing that there wasn't anything that Kagura could do that would manipulate him into giving her back the one thing she had lost to him. "Remember, Kagura, who holds what in this game," and as silently as he had appeared, Naraku had once again, vanished into the night, secure in his knowledge of supremacy.

When the obnoxious man had left Kagura kicked the side of her bed, only to be rewarded with a sharp pain, but she barely noticed it. The man was a nuisance to society, and Kagura wished that there would be a day when she would see him grovel before her. Laying herself on her bed, Kagura tried to picture the moment in her head when she would overpower Naraku, instead, however, the only man's face she could muster was that of Sesshoumaru's. But in her dream, he was smirking at her, telling her, without words, that he thought she was the lowest of their race. And every time Kagura tried to picture something, anything else, all she saw was that demeaning smirk and the man behind the lips.

She didn't care that her worth was nothing to anyone, but thinking that that _dog_ thought nothing of her made her tremble inside with rage. How dare he presume to know anything about her situation, he, who was the Lord of the Western Lands, privileged beyond all shadow of a doubt. What could that man possibly know of the hardships that life entailed? He had known nothing but the best of things since he was a child and someone needed to knock him down a few arrogant notches.

That damnable smirk would be the death of her.


End file.
